Sepang Qualifying Session Cancelled!

 Motogp Qualifying session was cancelled due to torrential rain this
afternoon.

Grid Positions are being calculated on combined practice times.

250GP times are the same as QP1


--
Daron

ebay? - http://tinyurl.com/ykgh


--
Daron

ebay? - http://tinyurl.com/ykgh

 Fwoar wrote:

An interesting decision by the FIM on the MotoGP grid, I think,
basically making a "homie" decision that potentially favors one guy -
Pedrosa. He starts 5th now, and had they gone with the 3rd session
results only, he would have been 19th and last. Other than Dani, the
grid is exactly the same as the 3rd session down to Tamada in 12th
position, the only other guy to make a move by this call (15th in the
session). So you might as well make that an official statement on who
the FIM/Dorna want to win this championship. Anyone think there's ANY
chance these people will EVER put weight on Dani's bike?! And it may
well be a dangerous decision, given Dani's injury and his potential pace
in the race - if he starts at all. Thumbs down on the whole deal, they
might as well have gridded based on distance between each rider's
birthplace and the Dorna offices in Spain...

Beyond that, a number of riders went out on qualifiers at the end of the
last session, so ended up with an advantage, including the front row of
Rossi, Hayden and Capirossi, probably Roberts in 4th, plus de Puniet and
maybe Hopkins, possibly Melandri. Best race tire pace was more like low
2:02s, which was where Rossi got to in the morning. Capirossi was doing
mid-high 02s all session, Hayden did a couple first time out and then
dropped to 03s, Roberts never did an 02 until his last lap in the 01s,
Sete did four straight 02s including his fastest 02.1, Melandri's
fastest 02.56 on the last lap was a half second quicker than any other.

In the 2nd session on Friday Capirossi did two consecutive high 01s on a
long run on race tires, and Roberts, Hopkins and Tamada were also able
to do 02s on race tires. Pedrosa as well, down to very low 02s, but he
only managed an 06 in the 3rd session, basically touring the whole time
(he did 18 laps). So it appears the real pace is Rossi and Capirossi,
while Hayden may have lost the most with that rain Saturday afternoon,
again struggling to get that bike set up (he said he'd only used the old
RCV in the winter tests, so it's sort of like he wasn't there at all),
he really needs the warmup.

My guess is that it will be between the two Italians, and perhaps Sete
back on the box for the first time in over a year. Hayden's best hope is
probably 3rd, and a good result for him right now looks a top 5,
Capirossi beating Rossi, Nick beating Melandri, and Pedrosa not scoring
points. Rossi's the guy who can really make a move up tomorrow, it appears.

 I'm wondering how Hayden got to 2nd in combined practice, he was well
down in the first 2 sessions, mind you Rossi was down too, I'm having
to access the Net with dialup ATM and it's too painful trying to look
at the 3 session times so I'm not going to calulate it out but the
whole thing seems bizzare.  A pity if Danni's injury does affect
tomorrows race performance, but I think his 5th position on the grid is
justified, Hayden certainly can't complain, he's leading the
championship this year by vitue of others bad luck, the fact that
Rossi, Capirossi and Melandri are where they are after all the crap
they had this year is testimony to their skill and Hayden with no DNF's
still only leads Rossi by 38 and Danni by 25, a rookie with one DNF,
the way things look if Hayden wins it will be by gods will not by his
own exceptional talent.

Paul


Mark N wrote:

 Paul B wrote:

One word - qualifier. Which hasn't been all that unusual for him this
year. If you drop what look like laps on Qs in that 3rd session and
include all sessions, here are the front three rows on race tires only:

Capirossi        2:01.711
Rossi            2:02.005
Pedrosa            2:02.021

Gibernau        2:02.181
Roberts            2:02.563
Hayden            2:02.608

Hopkins            2:02.673
Stoner            2:02.790
Edwards            2:02.800


A pity if Danni's injury does affect

Depends on how you look at it. When the FIM made the decision, it
appears there was no rule in place for this circumstance, so they did it
on the fly. They would have considered using just the morning session as
well as using all sessions, and really the only material difference is
Pedrosa. You have a guy who went out in the morning and couldn't get
within four seconds of what the fastest guys were doing on race tires
and, had it remained dry, he wouldn't have done all that much better
three hours later in the Q. There's also a serious question on whether
or not a guy that handicapped ought to be allowed on the track at all.
So what do they do? They dump him in the middle of the 2nd row, where he
can really be a danger to the other riders at the start, rather than put
him at the back of the grid, which is, by all indications, where his
actual pace is at this point. Ask yourself, would they have done the
same thing if it were Hayden in those bloody leathers instead? I have
serious doubts...

Hayden certainly can't complain,

He's not complaining.

he's leading the

Again, it depends on how you look at it. While Rossi has hardly only won
on luck in the past, his luck until this year was extraordinarily good,
enough to almost suggest divine intervention. His season this year and
Gibernau's the last two shows how much luck has to do with winning.

Rossi, Capirossi, Melandri, Gibernau and now Pedsrosa have all gotten
hurt this year, but what have the situations been? Rossi and Pedrosa
have hurt themselves through unforced errors resulting in crashes in
practice, so really their own fault. Rossi finished 8th at Assen after
his injury, 2nd at Donington and 1st in Germany, so it didn't hurt him
all that much (and probably the most overblown injury of the year).
Melandri lost the Catalunya race through no fault of his own, but got
7th at Assen, 3rd at Donington, 2nd in Germany, so he didn't lose that
much from his injury either. Capirossi is the one contending guy who has
really been hurt by his injury, not only the loss of Catalunya but then
15th at Assen, 9th at Donington, 5th in Germany, 8th at Laguna. But how
much did he have to do with that crash in the first place, and how much
would he have struggled at those following rounds on the Bridgestones
anyway? Gibernau the same.

Rossi's problem has been more the bike issues, particularly the tire
problems in China and the US and the mechanical in France. That's where
Hayden has really benefited, but beyond that, how much has Rossi
contributed to the bike problems? He has more input and effort made to
satisfy his desires than any other rider in the sport, probably ever,
and he ends up with a problematic bike - who do you point the finger at?

Pedrosa crashed on his own at Istanbul on the last lap and again at
Catalunya after the restart of that race, so his errors, just like
yesterday. He has what I think is and has been the best bike on the
grid, and now gets the sanctioning body trying to do him favors. He's
had a great first year for sure, but everyone knows that these bikes are
now designed for a 250 riding style, he's been racing these tracks for
five years, and he also has that 45-pound weight advantage over Hayden.
So he has an awful lot going for him.

Melandri was very inconsistent earlier in the year, winning a couple
times but down the field the rest of the time, first trying to stick
with the '05 bike, then fighting with his crew chief until Gresini
imposed a change. He's come better in more recent rounds, but hasn't
exactly looked like a champion this year. And he's the guy a lot of
people were picking to be most likely to challenge Rossi. So what happened?

Hayden has had his bike issues, perhaps not as clear and obvious as
Rossi's, but overall quite problematic, and Honda has seemed to do very
little about them. He's had that bike to ride and work on only since the
middle of winter testing and not since last fall like many of the
others. So he's soldiered on with his clutch problems and rear grip
problems and corner entry problems. What he's been is amazingly
consistent, on the box more than anyone, finishing higher on Sunday than
he usually looked capable of on Friday. Evidence of both his problems
and his consistency is qualifying - he's been on the front row only
three times this year now, never on pole, and last year he was on the
front row six times and took three poles, even with Rossi and Gibernau
on form in qualifying all year. Yet he leads the BMW award by a mile now
and can already be making room in that garage for the car.

I think if he'd been given the bike that Dani's on he'd have this
championship already well in the bag and would have more than two wins.
Instead he's having to run a strategic championship fight, getting
anything he can get at each round, not making any big mistakes. You
know, the kind of stuff Lawson and Rainey used to do, what Schwantz was
applauded for in '93 - and Roberts was condemned for in '00. Just
depends on how you look at it...

 

They shoulda went by current points, why they did not is a little telling
doncha think? Home boy call by Dorna IM(not so)HO..


No, he really needs a real bike and quit being big Red's test mule!

Yeah, hopefully if Dani's now out of it maybe Honda will start focusing on
the title, we'll see....


1. Capi
2. Sete
3. Vale
4. Nicky
and not nesessarily in that order...